I'm confused as to why Samsung would want Nokia. Right now Samsung is making better phones than Nokia. Samsung has a whole supply chain, kickarse manufacturing abilities, and a corporate culture that would be difficult to integrate with Nokia's. What does Nokia have that Samsung would want, and that Samsung can't acquire for less than $28 billion?
Now, Microsoft buying Nokia I could understand, since it would give Microsoft a much-needed boost in the mobile phone wars. Not necessarily $28 billion's worth, though, that's more than half Microsoft's dragon-guarded treasure pile.
Nokia shipped 100 million 'smart' phones in 2010. Samsung shipped 23 million. That's a big difference. If Samsung bought Nokia it would own over a third of the global smart phone market. Notice also that even though Nokia isn't growing as quickly as its competitors, it is still growing.
And, looking at the entire mobile phone market. Nokia sold 453 million phones while Samsung sold 280 million phones. Combined that would be over half the entire mobile phone market.
But you are right in one respect. Samsung has been extremely cautious about mergers after several failed mergers in the 1990's. So it would really need to have a good reason go down that path again.
Samsung could be a good buyer for Nokia. It could switch over the supply of Nokia's internal components to Samsung thereby creating synergy. Samsung could swap out Symbian with Bada on lower end phones and (depending on the Microsoft contract) Android on the high end.
In exchange Samsung gets Nokia's patents, Nokia's mapping assets, and access to an enormous global supply chain.
>Samsung could be a good buyer for Nokia. It could switch over the supply of Nokia's internal components to Samsung thereby creating synergy. Samsung could swap out Symbian with Bada on lower end phones and (depending on the Microsoft contract) Android on the high end.
I don't think Samsung would stop the Win7 phone production, or convert existing phones to Android from Win7. They already have a few Win7 phone models that reviewed pretty well. This would remove a potential competitor for those phones, as well as put them in a better position to deal with MS about the OS itself with Nokia's technology and supply chain.
I don't think Samsung would stop making Win7 Nokia phones. That would be throwing away money. But depending on the exclusivity clauses in the Microsoft deal Samsung might start making Android flavored Nokia phones as well. Samsung is strongly aligned with Google and just hedging its bets with Microsoft.
Don't forget that every time an apple mobile device is sold, they get money (the A4 processor is part Samsung technology). Many other phones use samsung technology and phone is just one thing Samsung do. They're the biggest company in South Korea.
Now, Microsoft buying Nokia I could understand, since it would give Microsoft a much-needed boost in the mobile phone wars. Not necessarily $28 billion's worth, though, that's more than half Microsoft's dragon-guarded treasure pile.